


till death do us part

by daydoodles



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Zombie Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Zombies, Angst, Character Undeath, M/M, Minor Violence, POV Third Person, This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, Why are there so many zombie tags I'm sorry, Zombie Apocalypse, Zombies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-06
Updated: 2015-07-06
Packaged: 2018-04-08 01:47:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4285989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydoodles/pseuds/daydoodles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Another request from <a href="http://aroarmin.tumblr.com/post/123320795465/resident-longwinded-anon-its-fairly#notes">this</a> writer pallette! This time, the prompt was "Ereri + zombies + reunion," though I'm not entirely sure this is the reunion that poor anon had in mind.</p><p>Basically, this is just more confirmation that I can't write happy things.</p>
            </blockquote>





	till death do us part

Eren had long since abandoned his hope of ever seeing Levi again.

They'd been separated almost a month ago; Levi had left their makeshift hideout at the time to search for food and clean water, telling Eren to go on without him if he wasn't back in three hours. Eren had waited for six, but Levi never showed. By then, it was dark, so he'd had no choice but to seek shelter, despite the nagging guilt that was tormenting him for leaving his boyfriend to fend for himself.

That also meant that Eren was fending for himself, however, which was a less than thrilling turn of events. He didn't doubt he could handle himself; after all, it had been seven months since the initial outbreak, and he'd managed to survive this long. Granted, it had been with Levi's help, but Eren was confident he could hold his own, even in the unforgiving world of the apocalypse.

He'd vowed at the start of this whole ordeal that he'd kill every last one of them, after he watched his own mother's brain torn from her skull and devoured by a mongrel of the undead. That was motivation enough, initially, but once he and Levi managed to find each other, he was even more determined. His boyfriend had been much more adept at combat, for whatever reason, and it became a sort of competition between them to see who could kill the most zombies. When they'd gotten separated, the current count was 78-82. Levi had been winning.

Now, though, Eren found himself sitting on a park bench in the middle of God knows where, trying to muster the strength to move. His head told him it wasn't smart to sit around in the open like that, but his heart was telling him to stay there and watch the cherry blossoms fall one last time. It was disorienting, being the only one there to witness it, but he figured he wouldn't get too many more chances (if any). He had no guarantee he'd live for another year, so he was going to enjoy the little things while he could.

The "little things" had undeniably taken on a much different definition since the epidemic, though. For one, he really needed a shower, and it wouldn't hurt to brush his teeth either. Thankfully, Levi had managed to scrounge up some deodorant a while back, so at least Eren still had that with him. Eren wondered if Levi had found any more, wherever the hell he was.

Actually, now that he thought about it, even seeing Levi's face again had become one of his "little things." True, they hadn't been apart very long in the grand scheme of things, but in this world a month may as well have been twenty years. Levi could be dead by now, or halfway across the country; and even if they did both manage to stay alive indefinitely, there was no way to know how to find each other. Basically, Eren was completely and royally screwed.

"God dammit," he mumbled to himself as he pushed up off the bench and grabbed his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder. He started making his way toward his current shelter, his boots leaving a trail of heavy footprints in his wake. The place he'd been staying for the past couple of days was extravagant by apocalyptic standards; it was just a shoddy one-room apartment with no electricity or running water, but at least it wasn't on ground level. The undead aren't exactly known for their intelligence, so even the slightest elevation was enough to keep them away, in general.

Shoving the door open (the handle had been jammed since he'd gotten here), Eren threw his bag on the floor unceremoniously. He also had a metal baseball bat that he carried with him at all times, and he set that down in the corner more carefully. Flopping onto the bed, he kicked off his boots and lay flat on his back.

He rolled over on the comforter, longing for what was probably the thousandth time that Levi was there to keep him company. When he'd had his boyfriend with him, Eren had felt much more relaxed; now that he was on his own, his mind wandered to places he wished it wouldn't far too frequently. To top it off, he was hyperaware of his surroundings; even the tiniest rustle of the tree next to the window set his mind reeling to the worst-case scenario. He was getting paranoid, and he hated himself for it.

 _What would Levi say?_ had become his mantra these past few weeks. Perhaps he should be asking what his boyfriend would do, but somewhere in the deep crevices of his mind Eren knew he could never act like Levi himself. In the end, all he could do was try to gauge how Levi would react to his actions, and use that as a guideline for how to compose himself. It wasn't much, but he had to hold onto what he had left of his boyfriend somehow.

In this particular case, Levi would say that it was probably nothing, but if he was that damn worried about it he should just get off his ass and check. Which is exactly what Eren did. After the fact, he wished he hadn't.

When he cracked the door open, he immediately recognised the now all too familiar smell of rotting flesh, and there was a metallic undercut of blood to it. It was definitely one of the undead, and if their stench was any indication, they were in the middle of a feeding frenzy. That in itself was a little surprising, considering how deserted Tokyo had become, but Eren was more bothered by the fact that it had actually made it upstairs. Whoever this corpse was, they'd been a hell of a smart human back before they turned. They must have been, if they were capable of scaling a balcony even in their deteriorated state.

The only reason he knew they'd come up from outside and climbed into some window down the hall rather than walking up the stairs was because the stairs themselves no longer existed. He wasn't entirely sure what had happened, but somewhere between the mad rush to evacuate and the utter destruction of civilisation, the stairway had collapsed in on itself; Eren himself had to scale the building just to get up to his hiding place.

He quickly slung his pack over his shoulders, gripping the handle of his baseball bat firmly between his fists. He'd done this countless times, and he wasn't particularly scared of what was coming, just exasperated that he was once again forced to fight for his life. At some point his typical rage took over, and he threw the door to his apartment open, storming out without even bothering to survey his surroundings. Not that it would have helped him, because nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next.

The first thing that caught his eye was the jacket. It was emerald green, with a huge pair of wings emblazoned on the back in grey, a keepsake from some university that no longer existed. The sleeves were rolled up, which didn't surprise Eren in the least; Levi always rolled his sleeves up to fight, literally.

That's when Eren's brain hit the brakes, his train of thought screeching to a halt. "Levi's jacket?" he whispered confusedly to no one. Unfortunately, the zombie scraping their way down the hall heard him, and reeled around.

That's when Eren's worst nightmares came true. As the corpse started walking toward him, seemingly more out of curiosity than urgency, he could clearly see the black undercut that was half grown out, the small stature, lean and ready to pounce, and the thin eyes that now looked lacklustre at best. They had once been dazzling, even if they only ever revealed secrets to Eren, but now they were dull in the most depressing sense of the word, not to mention the deep purple bags that were now permanently framing them. They were, in short, lifeless. Just like his boyfriend apparently was.

"No," was all he could say, because his brain simply couldn't fathom that Levi had actually allowed himself to be bitten by one of the undead. But the proof was right in front of his face, and no amount of willpower would change it now. Eren had wanted to see Levi again, of course he had, but at this point he would have been much happier to have never learned his boyfriend's fate. Though technically they were probably ex-boyfriends now, all things considered.

Either way, the decaying shell that had once been Levi was rapidly making his way over to him, clearly done with making sure Eren was actually food. As he ran, he extended his arms in Eren's general direction, his hands spread in the optimum position to strangle his neck, nails bloody and sharp.

Eren still held on to a shred of hope that he could simply outrun his nightmare of a boyfriend, and spun on his heels to dart back into his room. Hopping over various obstacles he tossed onto the floor in an attempt to slow Levi down, he used the balcony railing as a kickboard to jump into a nearby tree. He didn't bother climbing down properly, just jumped straight to the ground and sprinted away from the building, trying to put as much distance between himself and his pursuer as possible.

It didn't work. Levi was already chasing after him, which meant that he probably hadn't been undead for all that long. Eren reasoned that it had most likely only been a couple of days, if Levi's increased stamina was any indication. He wondered dizzily what might have happened if they'd found each other just a few days earlier; would he have been able to save Levi?

No, that wasn't even the question nagging at his brain. Though it was definitely a concern, the thing that was really bothering him was the fact that he'd never told Levi he loved him. Not even once. Sure, Levi hadn't told Eren he loved him either, but Eren still knew it had been true. Being apart from Levi had made Eren come to terms with the fact that he did, indeed, love his boyfriend, and he'd hoped to get the chance to tell Levi that at some point. He had wanted to be sure that Levi knew, that there was no confusion or uncertainty whatsoever about how he felt. That was worst part of all this, that he'd never even get to confess. Levi had (essentially) died without ever hearing Eren say those words, and he hated himself for it.

He felt the tears streaming down his face, hot and wet, before he consciously knew he was crying. They were mixing with the dirt that covered his cheeks, dripping thickly onto the ground as he came to a halt not even four metres away from Levi.

"Levi!" he yelled, knowing damn well that the other boy had no idea what he was saying. "Before -" he choked a little on his words, "before I kill you, I need to tell you something!"

Of course Levi wasn't fazed; he wasn't even hearing the words Eren was so desperately trying to get through to him. Nevertheless, Eren dropped his bat at his feet, and it rolled away slightly with a faint clanking.

Levi was nearly within arm's reach then, so Eren sprinted forward and closed the gap himself. He couldn't let himself get bitten, so he was glad that he had a leather jacket to protect his arms as he wrapped them around Levi's throat, putting him in a headlock just like he'd been taught. Unsurprisingly, it had been Levi who'd taught him that, but Eren didn't really appreciate the irony. He was too busy struggling to keep his boyfriend still, which was made considerably harder by the fact that he could barely see through the moisture in his eyes.

"You bastard, I'm supposed to be the one who never listens!" He cinched his arms tighter round Levi's throat, and kicked the back of his knees so they were both kneeling on the ground. That made it easier to pin Levi down, and Eren relaxed the tiniest bit as he kept talking. "Look, I hate that it has to be like this, I swear to God I do. But I've gotta tell you this or I'll never forgive myself." Not that he would either way, but considering he was talking to a zombie it didn't matter in the slightest. "I love you, Levi. I've loved you since I met you, probably, and definitely since we started going out. I guess we aren't really dating anymore, since you're dead, but I still love you. I always will, and I'm really fucking sorry for what I'm about to do. If it wouldn't literally kill me, I'd kiss you goodbye, but....well, just pretend my bat is my lips."

He dropped his arms, standing up and grabbing his bat again, poised for battle. Levi stood up more slowly, but wasted no time in lunging for his boyfriend. Eren closed his eyes, which was completely asinine from a survival standpoint, but he couldn't handle seeing himself murder the man he loved.

He swung the bat without even looking, so naturally he missed. Levi grabbed Eren's neck, no doubt trying to rip his head clean off his shoulders. It would have worked, but Eren braced himself and swung full-force at Levi's forehead, tears blurring his vision to the point he could barely aim.

There was a nasty crack, and the top half of Levi's face quite literally caved in on itself. Eren knew it wasn't enough to actually kill Levi, so he had to swing again. This time, he aimed for the jaw, and he looked his boyfriend in the eyes one last time before shutting his own. When he opened them again, Levi's head was sitting at his feet, and his body crumpled to the ground like the corpse it was.

Eren wiped his nose tentatively with the back of his hand, not wanting to touch his face very much till he was sure none of Levi's blood had gotten on him. He felt like this was anticlimactic, somehow; like, he'd expected to feel relieved at having survived the ordeal, at least. He didn't, though. He just felt dirty, and guilty for not getting the chance to say what was on his mind before Levi had lost his.

He shuffled away slowly, sparing one more glance over his shoulder at the ragged heap that had once been the love of his life. "I know what you'd say, Levi; that was a sloppy job. You deserved better." He wiped his face again, despite his paranoia. "Sorry, but it's the best I could do under the circumstances." He waved, blowing a halfhearted kiss to the pile of flesh on the ground. "I'll do better next time, promise. I'll keep doing better, and I'll live a long ass life for the both of us. Love you, see you on the other side."

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly I wish I could've done more with this AU, because ironically I've been wanting to write a zombie fic for a while now...but for the time being, this will have to do. As always, sorry I'm physically incapable of writing happy endings ~


End file.
